In this case study we’re going to show you how to follow a repeatable process to greatly improve SEO rankings for a NEW website.

If you’re expecting this article to tell you how to cheat at Search Engine Optimisation without putting in much effort, you’re in the wrong place!

With a new website, there needs to be a focus on improving organic performance gradually.

This article shows you the process we put in practise with new clients to effectively improve search engine rankings, whilst protecting the long-term health of your website.

Step-By-Step SEO Process

The Challenge

Our initial focus when engaging with the Tailor Made Rail team was on understanding more about the business, the most important search keywords, and the existing SEO limitations.

The existing website was using a Wix Content Management System (CMS).

The Wix CMS platform had limitations which restricted SEO performance, with the site also looking dated and was not performing effectively in converting visitors into enquiries.

The pre-existing website was ranking poorly for all relevant search terms, resulting in the business looking to invest in improving their search performance.

Organic traffic was not delivering value for the business, and hence a focus on improving the overall SEO performance of the site was required.

Step 1

Re-building The Website

There are a range of reasons why businesses invest in a new website.

A website is essentially your shop window, representing your business and providing the opportunity to effectively market and sell your products.

A new website is important if:

• You do not currently have a website.
• Your current website is not performing well in terms of site speed (an important SEO ranking factor).
• Your current website is not performing well in terms of converting visitors into enquiries or sales (conversion rate).
• Your current website has SEO restrictions (such as limitations regarding the URL structure), or does not allow you to effectively manage your site content.

Working closely with the team at Tailor Made Rail, we embarked on a project to modernise the businesses web-presence.

The focus for the project was on ensuring the new website effectively highlighted the quality of the products on offer whilst providing a clean user-experience.

The site was designed with SEO in mind from the outset, focusing on a logical site-hierarchy and effective use of on-page optimisation.

The new website included:

• Mobile responsive design – An important SEO ranking factor
• An easy-to-use, SEO-friendly WordPress platform
• Well optimised landing pages focused on specific search terms

Whilst re-developing a website, or creating a new website won’t automatically result in tangible SEO benefits, a poorly optimised or slow-loading website can be the primary reason why you’re not seeing the results you would have hoped for.

You can see how your site is performing regarding page speed using Google Speed Test or GT Metrix.

Step 2

Keyword Research

Effective keyword research is a crucial part of building a new website.

The aim is to utilise research tools to identify keywords which offer high monthly search volume., as well as conversion intent.

Conversion intent relates to keywords clearly showing the intent of the user to purchase.

For example, ‘Orient Express Holidays’ would be used by searchers looking to holiday on the Orient Express (clear conversion intent); whereas a search simply for ‘Orient Express’ (which has higher search volume) would likely include a wide range of information searches.

The most effective free keyword research tool is Google Keyword Planner which, provided you are currently running paid PPC ads, gives you accurate search volumes for related terms.

The keyword research process is also useful to identify any ‘low-hanging fruit’ which are pages ranking just off the first page of Google.

These keywords provide opportunity to deliver immediate ROI, with a focus on improving ranking positions of these pages into top 10 positions.

Once a range of related keywords have been identified, a crucial step is to ensure that there are unique landing pages created to target each key-phrase.

Where possible, the proposed URL structure for your new website should highlight to Google which pages are more (or less) important, based on their position in the site hierarchy.

A simple Excel (or shared Google Sheets) document is a sensible way to understand for yourself the ideal hierarchy for your website, whilst also ensuring all key search-phrases are targeted with dedicated landing pages:

A core element of deciding the URL structure process for the new website is to identify whether keywords with sufficient volume would be better served through a static landing page, or a blog post.

• Landing page

A sales-focused landing page, such as a destination (i.e. Italy) or experience (i.e. luxury rail holidays) is designed to highlight relevant product and provide clear calls-to-action (CTAs).

A landing page ideally will have a logical position in the site hierarchy, and is not a date-specific piece of content.

Effective landing pages will have a strong impact on the total number of conversions from organic traffic:

An example of a landing page would be https://www.tailormaderail.com/destinations/italy

• Blog post

Blog posts provide the opportunity to add a large amount of content to a page which greatly improves overall SEO performance.

A blog provides the opportunity to link to relevant sales-focused pages, improving the internal link profile of key landing pages.

Blogs may include answers to relevant questions (i.e. What to pack for an Orient Express holiday?) or lists (i.e. Best rail holidays in Europe).

Step 3

Improving Existing Content

Where possible, the amount of content on landing pages or blog posts needs to be increased.

Pages with thin content are those which have a low text to html ratio.

Generally speaking you don’t want pages with less than 500 words of original content being crawled by search engines. Ideally, content will have a minimum of 1,000 words.

Reviewing and improving existing content provides 3 main advantages:

1. Increased content depth increases the possibility that each article ranks well in search engines.
2. Improving the content to include clear calls-to-action (CTAs) ensures that ALL of your content is working hard to convert visitors into enquirers (and hopefully bookers)
3. Adding relevant internal links (to appropriate sales-focused landing pages) improves the websites internal link profile, improving SEO performance.

Existing content, in whatever form, is your best starting point to improve your overall SEO performance.

Similarly to the keyword research process detailed above, an effective process for review outstanding content is simply using an Excel doc.

With a new (or fairly new) website the amount of pre-existing content will be very limited, allowing you to quickly group content into 3 key categories:

1. Fine as-is
2. Needing review
3. To delete

Whilst the aim is to develop your authority with new content, the best place to start is to ensure ALL content on your site is representing your business in the best possible way.

Key steps for improving content involve:

1. Adding additional content
2. Adding/improving imagery
3. Adding/improving calls-to-action
4. Adding additional internal links to key sales pages
5. Change keyword focus, if required (based on keyword research)

Step 4

Link Building – Start Sloooow with a NEW Website

With any new website, there are limitations.

Depending on how new the site is, and whether the new site is replacing an existing website; Google will likely have little prior perception of the authority (or importance) of your website.

Whilst the aim is to improve Google’s overall picture of the authority of your new site as quickly as-is possible, effective SEO involves ensuring that any growth in authority appears natural:

Links to the homepage are important to the performance of a new domain, developing the overall Domain Authority which has a strong bearing on the SEO performance of all pages.

This focus on links to your homepage using branded anchor text (your brand name or URL) is the safest way to improve your overall SEO performance, whilst also protecting the long-term health of your website.

The process ensures that all pages benefit from the increase in top-level domain authority.

Step 5

Start to focus on deeper pages

All pages need external links to rank well in search engines.

The number of links needed to be competitive depends upon the page, the site, your niche, the type of query and so on.

Lower-level pages may only need a limited number of direct links to rank well, so it’s important to understand your site structure and the relationship between pages:

Remember, a link to a ‘Category Page 2’ (in the example above) will benefit any pages set as children of that page.

Therefore it’s worth deciding (based on your keyword research), which pages you will focus on with links, and how links to this page will also benefit others.

Hence the Homepage has the highest overall link benefit to your site.

The focus needs to be on increasing the number of high-quality links, at a rate which looks ‘natural’ to Google.

When developing links, the key is to identify websites which have relevance to your brand.

In the example of Tailor Made Rail, we were looking for websites and blogs which were related to trains, travel and holidays in Europe.

Content placement on 3rd party websites needs to follow a few key guidelines:

1. Work with the highest authority domains you can afford with your budget – high quality link development cost money, there’s no getting away from this!
2. Create in-depth content – aim for at LEAST 1,000 words of well-written content (more if possible although don’t add filler just to meet the word-count)
3. Add your link towards the start of the piece – early links carry the most value
4. Ensure that your link looks as natural as possible – ideally the link should look like a natural citation (reference)
5. Add a selection of good quality links to the piece – ensuring that the additional inks are pointing to high-quality websites and that there are a selection of links to eCommerce and informational resources.

Step 6

New content strategy

Whilst the process of updating existing content and creating new links from high-quality external websites will take time, there needs to be a focus on creating new content.

A new content project will follow on from the keyword research, identifying which keywords are not being effectively targeted through pre-existing landing pages.

Once identified, the blogs or static landing pages need to be effectively optimised for search engines, which primarily includes ensuring page titles and headers are optimised for the selected target keywords.

To ensure that Google regularly visits your site, and hence indexes any new content quickly, it is important to publish content.

Results

As a result of the processes above, the overall SEO performance has been very strong.

There has been a clear increase in total visitors from organic traffic:

The SEO project has delivered noticeable improvement in the organic ranking for key search terms:

Organic Rankings

(Source: SEM Rush October 18 – July 20)

Aside from the key-phrases targeted above, the focus on links to the homepage delivers an increase to the overall Domain Authority.

This subsequently results in a wide range of keywords increasing ranking positions.

Ranks in Top 10 Positions

The number of keywords ranking in Top 10 positions in Google has improved dramatically during this time:

(Source: AHrefs)

Value of Organic Traffic

The overall value of organic traffic has increased significantly:

(Source: AHrefs)

Overall Organic Traffic

With a strong increase in overall organic traffic.

Performance Vs Competitors

When comparing overall performance with key competitors , the growth has been very encouraging:

As a result of the growth, the business is now out-performing long-established competitors.

Feedback

“Having worked with Apollo for 2 years now, we have been delighted with the accessibility and delivery of PPC and SEO services, as well as assisting us in building two new SEO-friendly websites for our UK and Australian operations.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Matt and his team to anyone looking to enhance their online presence and drive their business forward.”

Simon Hodge, Managing Director, Tailor Made Rail

Talk To Us

Whilst your SEO performance is something which requires a hands-on approach, the best best is to talk to the experts.

Get in touch with us today for a FREE, no-obligation SEO Audit to understand your current performance and the potential opportunities.

If you own a travel or bookings website, you will have heard about ‘SEO keywords ‘ many times before.

Although we hear lots about how SEO keywords can boost our website rankings, what we don’t often uncover is how you can use keywords to actually grow your online bookings.

Turning your website visitors into paying customers requires the clever use of keywords so that the right audience will find your website.

Any keyword strategy must be reinforced with top-quality content displayed on your website when your visitors arrive.

With the right types of keywords, website content and web design it is possible to gain more bookings for your online business.

Let’s take a look at how SEO keywords can be used to grow your online bookings.

Top tips to grow your online bookings with SEO keywords:

Use Keyword Tools

If you have never used a SEO keyword tool such as Google Keyword Planner, you may be surprised to learn the discrepancies between what you want to rank for, and the phrases that people actually type into search engines.

Especially when identifying keywords which have more specific conversion-intent (intent to buy as opposed to research).

Without using a good SEO keyword tool or employing the services of an SEO agency such as Apollo, it is possible to spend your time on keywords that are not searched by your potential customers.

The people who would actually buy your products or services.

By using keywords with the exact phrases and language that are specifically your target market use, you will find that the visitors who land on your website are able to locate content that is tailored to their need.

Providing that you have high-quality and well-planned website content , you can begin to lead your website visitors through their journey, which will hopefully end in a booking.

Image credit: pumpkinwebdesign.com

The aim of keyword research is to identify the most important keyword to target with each landing page, considering both keyword volume and conversion intent (the search intent behind the user’s search).

You can research in 2 key ways:

1. Search for new keywords
2. Get search volume and forecasts for an existing keyword list

To find new keywords, use Google Keyword Planner to add words, key-phrases or your site URL.

You’ll get the following data:

• Exact monthly search volumes (or volume range depending on PPC spend)
• Level of competition
• Top of page bid (the equivalent cost-per-click through Google AdWords)

Once you have a better understanding of search volume and your current ranking performance, you will be able to identify potential keyword opportunities.

In addition, researching your current rank for relevant keywords will help to identify ‘low-hanging fruit’.

These are keywords ranking just off the first page of Google and offer the potential to greatly increase your search traffic.

Think outside the box

We all know that competition for rankings in search is tough, so thinking outside the box is essential.

Especially when it comes to your keyword choices

Instead of using lots of single or two-word keywords, opt for longer phrases that your competition are less likely to target.

These longer phrases are known as long-tail keywords.

Long-tail keywords are groups of words, in a longer phrase, that are searched by your user.

For example, ‘quiet wellness spa in Bali’ would have limited monthly search volume, but is a term with strong conversion intent (intent to buy).

Image credit: nichesiteproject.com

When targeting longer phrases, your competitors are less likely to use the same long-tail keywords as you because the increased number of words in each phrase makes the likelihood of other sites putting together the same combination of words less likely.

Therefore your chances of ranking well are increased.

Targeting long-tail keywords also means that your website content is even more tailored to the search query so your chances of gaining visitors who have already done some research and know exactly what they want are greatly increased.

Their searches are more specific and they are more educated regarding what they would like to do.

Often users who use long-tail keywords have already begun to commit themselves to purchasing the booking and are now searching for the provider offering a product similar to their ideal.

Therefore, they are much more likely to turn into paying customers once they arrive on your website.

Another benefit of using unique sets of keywords for each individual page is that you avoid the dangers of search engines assuming that your web pages are simply duplications of each other.

If search engines interpret multiple use of the same keywords across numerous pages on your website as duplicated content, they will only list one of the web pages in search and count the others as inferior duplicates.

As a result, allocating plenty of time to develop and implement a solid keyword strategy that builds your conversion rate has many benefits for your online business.

Once again, if you don’t have excellent content on your travel or bookings website when visitors arrive your use of long-tail keywords or in fact, any other keyword strategy will go to waste.

The use of powerful keyword strategies to increase your bookings has to be executed alongside a review of your website content and web design.

Keywords are only the first step in your sales journey.

You won’t increase your bookings with SEO keywords if your website content and web design isn’t up to scratch.

Image credit: epsilontheory.com

SEO keywords will create awareness of your website, to take your visitor on through the sales funnel and finally make that booking you need to have compelling snippets in your search listings and superior content and web design ready on your website when your target market arrive.

Online competition is high, so whatever your marketing strategy, even with the powerful force that SEO keywords are, you still need top-quality content and web design to secure those bookings.

Relevant content

Once you have identified a keyword list, you need to find the most relevant keywords for the information on each existing landing page.

This may entail a tweak to just the page title and H1 (to make the keyword targeting more specific), or a re-write of the content on the page.

Every web page and piece of meta data needs its own carefully researched target key-phrase.

Identifying synonyms (other key-phrases similar to the chosen keyword) and using these in the content avoids keyword stuffing and demonstrates that the content is rich in detail.

The aim is to convince Google that the web page is the best option to be returned in search results for the keyword you’re targeting.

Avoid highly competitive terms

Unless you’re big!

It is really tempting to see the big numbers that accompany the top keywords and want to use them.

However, to get results from keywords you have to think differently and that means not trying to rank for all of the top keywords.

Most people don’t make enough time to develop a successful keyword strategy so clearly the top-ranking keywords can be found with the least keyword research and will be used by the majority of your competitors.

Therefore it makes sense to use the keywords that most people don’t get to see because they won’t spend enough time looking through the full range of options.

With less competition for the keywords that don’t show up first during your research, you are more likely to rank better and be found more easily by your target market.

However, of course you must also use all of the aforementioned strategies, such as long-tail keywords and unique sets of keywords, if you want to use less popular keywords with any success.

5. Audience specific

Now that you have devoted a large proportion of time to your keyword research, you can also ensure that you only select keywords that apply to your specific target market.

For example, if you are looking for keywords for a web page that relates to an adults-only health and wellness resort in Kerala in Southern India, you can eliminate any keywords to do with children and families from your selection, as well as any keywords that relate to other parts of the world.

Similarly if you spot SEO keywords that match the interests, needs and priorities of your target market, you know that they are the best ones to choose.

Image credit: rankwatch.com

In the diagram above, if your web page was about luxury hotels in Paris, you would clearly choose 5 star hotels in Paris from the list of results.

However, if your web page was about luxury hotels in Florida, you would select 5 star hotels in Miami and 5 star hotels in Orlando.

As with any other marketing strategy it is crucial that you have a thorough knowledge of your target market and a clear understanding of your content strategy, before you begin your keyword research so that you can tailor your keyword strategy to fit your target audience.

6. Analytics

Keywords are quantifiable data so it is easy to track their success and adapt your keyword strategy accordingly.

Evaluating the performance of every element of your website is essential if you want to grow your bookings and that includes the performance of your keyword strategy across the pages of your website.

You can gain a huge amount of valuable information about the success of your keyword strategy from your website analytics.

Using your website CMS and your keyword tools, it is possible to track and adapt your use of keywords to increase your bookings across your website pages.

In the same way that you would test and re-test a marketing campaign, it is necessary to implement, review and evaluate your use of keywords if you want them to operate at an optimum level.

Similarly, you will need to give your keywords some time to take effect so don’t be too hasty in making changes if you don’t see the results you want.

Remember too, to keep the keyword sets for each page unique.

Copying successful keywords across multiple pages will devalue your hard work.

Keyword cannibalisation, where two pages compete for the same target keyword, is a major factor influencing your rankings.

Like any other marketing strategy, keyword use needs time, knowledge and expertise, as well as excellent content.

Finding the time to:

• Research the best SEO keywords for your website and target market
• Create a comprehensive keyword strategy in line with your website content strategy
• Analyse and review the results of your keyword strategy

…is beyond the time constraints of most business owners.

There are many keyword tools available on the market to assist business owners to develop a successful keyword strategy, however they also require time and expertise to be used to good effect.

Furthermore, having a keyword strategy without good website content and website design is useless, so the development of any keyword strategy must be accompanied by a review of your website.

It may sound like a lot to do but here at Apollo we deliver a complete range of digital marketing services to increase your bookings, that includes developing your use of: SEO keywords, web content, web design and much more.

Working solely for the travel and leisure industry, we have a deep knowledge of how to utilise online marketing for travel and leisure brands.

Whether you need support to develop your use of SEO keywords, website development,  marketing support, video marketing, online advertising or something else, give us a call on: 01730 239858 or contact us to have a chat about how we can help you.